Teen discovers how to make plastic rot

An eleventh grader in Waterloo has figured out what makes plastic decompose and how to speed up that process—to three months. The trick was figuring out which bacteria are responsible for breaking down plastic over time and then to grow those.

“Almost every week I have to do chores and when I open the closet door, I have this avalanche of plastic bags falling on top of me,” the 16-year old-told The Record. “One day, I got tired of it and I wanted to know what other people are doing with these plastic bags.”

It sounds huge, doesn’t it? I also hope this doesn’t slow down the intellectual energy focused on plastic alternatives and solutions. I mean, even rotted plastic can’t be all that good for the Earth. Little Shiva, if it’s safe I hope they do send the bacteria to the GPGP. DT, what’s your thinking on bioplastics? Aren’t some of them made from evil corn?

As far as GM crops go, they aren’t necessarily evil at all. I have a hunch that the smear campaign launched against them was actually begun by the oil companies themselves, as they stand to lose billions if we invest in this technology. We’ve been genetically modifying crops for thousands of years. (Broccoli, anyone?) And I think that well-meaning environmentalists with no specific scientific knowledge have played right into their hands. There are evil aspects that must be addressed, i.e. the companies that produce them will copyright the DNA of the crops and lock them down into a kind of monopoly.

However, I am also not a scientist, and these are my feelings based on what I have read and or heard on NPR ;)